Coinbase addresses Ripple rumors, says it has made no decision on adding new coins

Coinbase just threw a bit of cold water on Ripple enthusiasts eager to see their coin hit the popular mainstream exchange.

Rumors that Ripple’s XRP would be next in line after Bitcoin Cash reached a fever pitch this week among coin hype types, with some reading between the lines of a Tuesday segment of CNBC’s Fast Money that’s set to feature Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Coinbase President Asiff Hirji in what appears to be a panel discussion on cryptocurrency trends.

Speculation based on the Fast Money segment drove XRP up to $1.07, up about 6{36b96a1f853ebc4400789db5a6750c1e4fd7f7ac668ceaf8c757e025080de237} from weekly averages. Ripple’s XRP remains the only coin in the top five by market cap that isn’t available on Coinbase, though given XRP’s centralized nature and very different aims when compared to other cryptocurrency projects, its absence isn’t that surprising. Still, there is plenty of trading interest and those things don’t preclude Coinbase from adding XRP in the future were it to choose to do so.

Responding to the rumors, Coinbase tweeted “Our January 4th, 2018 statement continues to stand: we have made no decision to add additional assets to either GDAX or Coinbase. Any statement to the contrary is untrue and not authorized by the company.” Following the statement, XRP slid back modestly toward its previous averages.

The company also linked to a January 5 blog post on its criteria for adding new assets. That post states that “Coinbase will announce the addition of new assets only via our blog post or other official channels.” The company likely isn’t eager to repeat the chaos around the introduction of Bitcoin Cash. Support for Coinbase’s newest asset was announced officially well ahead of time, but the rollout itself was marred by massive premiums, a trading freeze and an internal insider trading investigation.

Disclosure: The author holds a small position in some cryptocurrencies. Regrettably, it is not enough for a Lambo.